"Adam Hopkins: Bassist, composer, educator, and semi-professional parallel parker from Baltimore MD-the Land of Pleasant Living. Relocated to Brooklyn NY in 2011, but Baltimore will always be home.

Extended Bio:

Adam Hopkins is a bassist, composer, and educator born and raised in Baltimore MD and relocated to Brooklyn NY in 2011. He has extensive experience performing jazz and improvised music and has played with professional orchestras in Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and the DC metro area.

Adam currently appears in a number of NYC-based ensembles both as a leader and sideman. As a sideman he closed 2017 with performances led by Henry Threadgill as well as a European tour with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet. He performs regularly with BeepHonk, Laila & Smitty, Anna Webber's Rectangles, Danny Gouker's Signal Problems, Christopher Hoffman Trio, Kate Gentile Mannequins, Dustin Carlson's Air Ceremony, Ideal Bread, Patrick Breiner's Double Double & Practical Mysticism. He currently leads three NYC-based bands (Adam Hopkins' Crickets, Bells + Wires, and Party Pack ICE) - for more information about any of these groups please refer to the Projects section of this site. Adam has studied double bass with many great performers and teachers of the instrument, including Michael Formanek, Jeffrey Weisner, Jack Budrow, Rodney Whitaker, and Sam Cross and additional studies with Drew Gress and Gary Thomas.

In August of 2018 Adam will launch his own record label called Out Of Your Head Records, with the intention of releasing his own albums, and albums of music he loves made by his friends. Also there will be t-shirts and stickers, because who doesn't love t-shirts and stickers?

In addition to being a performer he has extensive experience as a curator. In 2009 he co-founded an improvised music collective called the Out of Your Head Collective, which maintained weekly performances in Baltimore for 5+ years at The Windup Space. Upon moving to New York in 2011 he started a Brooklyn-based chapter which involved over 100 of the city's greatest improvisers. He currently co-curates a weekly performance series in Crown Heights called A.E. Randolph Presents, now in its fourth year, and previously curated the weekly performance series 65Fen.

Adam held a faculty position at Loyola University for six years as a professor of double and electric bass, music theory, ear training, and jazz ensembles. Currently he teaches privately in his home studio and designs improvisation-based workshops for business through sfz Creative, a company he co-founded with musical associates Eric Trudel and Danny Gouker. He holds a graduate performance diploma from Peabody Conservatory in Jazz Studies, a master's degree from Michigan State University in Orchestral Bass Performance, and a bachelor's degree from James Madison University in Music Industry."

"If Brooklyn's music circles draw a venn diagram, Angela Morris thrives in the loop between avant-jazz, new music, and pop. As composer and multi-instrumentalist, (known mostly as saxophonist, she grew up playing violin) she has performed throughout North America and Europe everywhere from basements to arenas.

The Webber|Morris Big Band, her 18-piece jazz big band, performs original compositions by Morris and co-leader Anna Webber. The New York Times praised their "ambitious original compositions" and "jagged-edged band that has begun to turn musicians' heads." The ensemble will release their debut album Both Are True on Greenleaf Music in 2020.

Morris' vocal group Rallidae has released two albums: 2016's Turned, and Was on the NYC-based label Gold Bolus Recordings and 2014's Paper Birds, which AllAboutJazz called "a genuinely distinctive, and entertaining, combination of sounds and words... An exceptional debut by and exciting and innovative new band."

As a co-leader, Morris is a member of TMT, a trio with Cat Toren on piano and Anthony Taddeo on drums, who recently released Asleep in the Dust - an art book and double CD collaboration with visual artist Jerry Birchfield. Another collaborative trio, Motel released like you always do, I always did too (Prom Night Records) 2017. And the band Skellettes with Nathaniel Morgan (saxophone), Jason Ajemian (bass) and Booker Stardrum (drums) performs at Winter Jazzfest in 2020.

Since 2016, Morris has organized the monthly, multi-disciplinary, experimental concert series Brackish - music & art at St. Lydia's Dinner Church in Brooklyn.

Morris performs with Jessica Pavone String Ensemble, and performed on their 2019 debut album Brick and Mortar. She has performed with Myra Melford in duo and other formats. She is a frequent collaborator and touring band member with "cosmic synth-folk" musician Helado Negro, appearing on his records Private Energy (Expanded), This is How You Smile, and Helado Negro and the Smile Band - Live at KCRW.

A 2019 Composer Fellow at Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, Morris has also been artist-in-residence at Willapa Bay AiR, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Banff Centre. She holds an MA in Music Composition from the Aaron Copland School of Music at CUNY Queens College in New York and BA in Jazz Studies from Humber College in Toronto. She is an alumna of the BMI Jazz Composer's Workshop lead by Jim McNeely and studied composition with Darcy James Argue."

"Reedist Anna Webber, a Brooklynite by way of British Columbia, is one of the most exciting new arrivals on the New York avant-garde jazz scene in the past couple years. Her second album, SIMPLE, demonstrates the inextricable link between her improvising and her compositions; her detail-rich writing recalls the work of elders as disparate as Tim Berne and Henry Threadgill, and her busy motion evokes a fizzy sort of exhilaration.-Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

Anna Webber is an integral part of a new wave of the Brooklyn avant-garde jazz scene. A saxophonist and flutist who strives for the unexpected, she has furthermore consistently proven herself to be a unique and forward-thinking composer with releases such as 2014's SIMPLE (Skirl Records) and 2013's Percussive Mechanics. Binary, the follow-up to SIMPLE which features bandmates John Hollenbeck and Matt Mitchell, further establishes Webber as a compelling improvisor and composer."

"Percussionist/composer Jeff Davis has established himself in New York as a vital contributor to the local and international creative music scenes. Jeff is widely sought out for his unique, textural approach to the drum set, as well as for his power and intensity. As a featured member of a number of creative ensembles in New York, Davis has recorded for such labels as Clean Feed, Fresh Sound/New Talent, Green Leaf, Loyal Label, Jazzaway, and innova records. These ensembles include the Jesse Stacken Trio, Michael Bates Outside Sources, Kirk Knuffke Quartet, Landon Knoblock Trio/Quartet, Ben Holmes Quartet, Pascal Niggenkemper 'Newfield' trio, Pedro Giruado Jazz Orchestra, Pete Robbins' Unnamed Quartet, Jon Irabagon's Outright!, Eivind Opsvik's Overseas, Tone Collector(Tony Malaby, Eivind Opsvik, Jeff Davis), the RIDD Quartet, Kris Davis Quartet, and the Ryan Keberle Organ Group. In addition to these working bands, Davis has also performed with such artists as Tony Malaby, Chris Speed, Gebhard Ullmann, Brad Shepik, Ralph Alessi, and Ron Horton.

Davis has toured Europe and China and has performed at several prominent jazz festivals, including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Oslo Jazz Festival, the Vancouver Jazz Festival, and the Earshot Jazz Festival. He performs regularly in various New York listening rooms, such as the Stone, the Jazz Standard, the Jazz Gallery, Birdland, NuBlu, Barbes, Zebulon, the Knitting Factory, Joe's Pub, the Iridium, and the 55-Bar.

Jeff Davis is currently leading and composing for his own ensemble, featuring New York greats Tony Barba, Kirk Knuffke, Jon Goldberger, Kris Davis, and Eivind Opsvik. This group of like minded improvisers recorded for Davis' debut CD in June of 2007, and is set to be released on Tuesday, March 30th 2010 for the record label, Loyal Label. The music from this group ventures to blur the line between composition and improvisation, and highlights equally the individual soloist as well as collective improvisation. Jeff also leads a trio/quartet featuring Matt Pavolka, Oscar Noriega, and Jon Goldberger.

Originally from Greeley, Colorado, Jeff Davis began playing marimba at the age of nine and later studied classical percussion at the University of Northern Colorado. While in Colorado, Jeff had the opportunity to study and perform with ECM recording artist/pianist Art Lande and trumpet great Ron Miles. Davis holds a Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music."

"Dustin Carlson is a Brooklyn based guitarist and composer who creates musical artworks.Dustin has performed with: Ches Smith, Anna Webber, Mike Bisio, Michael Attias, Susan Alcorn, Kim Cass, Jeremy Viner, Bruce Harris, and others."

Marc Hannaford is an improviser, composer, and academic based in New York. Fainter, Stronger presents a series of sonic portraits of some of his musical collaborators and influencers, framed within large scale temporal cycles.

"Jen Baker, trombonist/composer, has collaborated with artists all over the world in site-specific mixed media performance, concert halls, solo and chamber commissions. As an improviser she is featured on the soundtrack to Werner Herzog's Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World. She has performed internationally in festivals and has toured with Arijit Singh, Karole Armitage, and Mansour, and new music ensembles S.E.M., TILT brass, and the mobile ensemble Asphalt Orchestra (founding member). Her forthcoming book, Hooked on Multiphonics aides composers and trombonists in understanding and executing the deep complexities of multiphonics."

"Denver born trumpeter Kenny Warren has been active in New York's improvised music scene since 2006. His playing is rooted in jazz and draws heavily from American and international folk music traditions. He has released two LPs with his songwriting outfit Laila and Smitty which Bird is the Worm calls "massively genuine and unabashedly heart-on-the-sleeve open and honest". He also leads The Kenny Warren Quartet which was featured in the Festival of New Trumpet Music (2016) and whose debut album "Thank You for Coming to Life" was released in 2017 on Whirlwind Recordings.

Kenny has toured internationally and studied in the Balkans with legendary brass band Slavic Soul Party, whom he joined in 2008. In 2016, SSP released a re-imagining of Duke Ellington's Far East Suite and has held a weekly residency at Barbes in Brooklyn for over a decade. Kenny has recorded with the Middle Eastern Maqam-Jazz band Nashaz, played and recorded with indie rock icons like The Walkmen and Spoon, toured with The Budos Band, and was featured on the soundtrack of the highly acclaimed film Beasts of the Southern Wild. He is a teaching artist with Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections, and co-curator of the weekly experimental music series A.E. Randolph Presents.

Kenny has recorded a handful of records of his own music as a collaborator with ZhirtZ n ZkinZ and NOOK, and is in demand as a sideman in a number of New York music circles. Recent projects include: Ben Stapp's Zozimos, Brad Shepik's Balkan Peppers, The Angela Morris & Anna Webber Big Band, The Sway Machinery, The Sandra Weiss Quintet, The Myk Freedmans, Big Butter and The Eggmen, Andy Biskin's 16 tons, The Rob Brown Quartet, Antlers and Capillaries, and duos with Jeremiah Lockwood, Bobby Avey and Tony Malaby."

"Mexican born vibraphonist, marimbist and composer Patricia Brennan has been always surrounded by music. She inherited a deep love and appreciation for musical tradition from both parents, as well as being exposed to the musical richness of her native Port of Veracruz. She started studying music at 4 years old, playing latin percussion along salsa records with her father and listening to Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zeppelin records with her mother. Also, around the same age, she started playing piano, influenced by her grandmother who was a concert pianist.

At the age of 17, Patricia was selected from musicians all over the Americas to be part of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. During this time, she toured every country in the Americas and performed with renowned musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and Paquito D'Rivera. Before moving to the U. S., Patricia was already performing with the top symphony orchestras in Mexico, such as Xalapa Symphony Orchestra and Mineria Symphony Orchestra. Also, she had already won several awards on marimba competitions and young artist competitions in Mexico and abroad. She was accepted at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was able to perform alongside high caliber musicians from all over the world and conductors such as Simon Rattle and Charles Dutoit. She also performed with the prestigious Philadelphia Orchestra and other acclaimed new music groups such as members from Eight Blackbird.

Patricia's search for freedom in her musical expression led her to find her voice through the vibraphone and mallet percussion in improvisational music and composition.

Currently, Patricia is a member of Grammy nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus. She is also a member of Blind Spot with Teju Cole, a project led by renowned pianist Vijay Iyer along with bassist Linda Oh and writer Teju Cole. She has also collaborated with Vijay Iyer in other projects, including the large ensemble project Open City and several small ensemble performances along with renowned musicians like bassist Reggie Workman and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. She is also a member of Phalanx Ambassadors, a project led by pianist Matt Mitchell, and she is also a member of Tomas Fujiwara's 7 Poets Trio along with cellist and composer Tomeka Reid. Among Patricia's own projects include the newly recorded solo project Kaleidoscope and MOCH.

Patricia has performed with many renown musicians including singer and composer Meredith Monk and Theo Bleckmann, saxophonists Jon Irabagon and Scott Robinson, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, drummer Marcus Gilmore, guitarist Mary Halvorson and many others. She has performed in venues such as Newport Jazz Festival, SF JAZZ, and Carnegie Hall, as well as international venues such as Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna, Austria, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has also appeared on National Television and Public Radio several times.

Patricia has appeared on several recordings, including an ECM recording with Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus called "The Distance" and Matt Mitchell's featured recordings "A Pouting Grimace" and "Phalanx Ambassadors" under Pi Recordings. Also, Patricia recorded a new record with the Grammy nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble called "All Can Work" which was released in January 2018 under New Amsterdam Records. Patricia will be releasing her debut solo album "Kaleidoscope" in 2019."